Elephant Robotics is a successful Chinese tech company that has historically made robotic arms for a few different market segments. They contracted us to help drive press coverage about their new companion cat robot, MarsCat. We worked on generating favourable coverage for both their crowdfunding campaign and their presence at CES.

Typically when a B2B company makes a foray into the B2C world there are issues around building messaging to consumers. It often boils down to DNA and this is when a decent PR firm can come in handy. Moreover, in terms of interactions with media, B2B companies often deal with niche and trade outlets as opposed to the huge consumer facing media outlets B2C firms must impress and sway. Media demos are different in B2C, and the elements on which favourable coverage depends also change.

We designed a pre crowdfunding launch strategy that involved hands on demos with the biggest tech media. This underpinning thinking was that, in tech, bigger outlets tend to have disproportionate influence and can generate significant follow on coverage when things go right.

MarsCat is a divisive product that some people find creepy. This we deliberately did not shy away from.  We embraced the fact that the cat was not for everyone and was, in some respects, a little weird.

MarsCat has generated over 120 global media hits since signing on with us. We’ve seen coverage in over 12 languages during this time.

The biggest global tech media have covered the product and campaign, everyone from TechCrunch, to The Verge, to CNET and NowThis, among many others. Mainstream outlets including The Colbert Report featured the kitty, and the BBC listed MarsCat as one of the most anticipated pieces of tech at CES.

MarsCat dominated coverage at CES. TechCrunch described it as “a robot cat with lots of love,” and  Apartment Therapy described it as “a super advanced Furby”.

It got so crazy that on one day of CES, MarsCat’s Founder had so many demos that we had to send him home for fear of him falling down tired.  This has never happened in the history of our agency.